The EU’s push for intellectual property rights on seeds and its impact on developing countries
For APBREBES and Both ENDS, an agreement negotiated 30 years ago by a few industrialised countries is not a basis for shaping the global agriculture of tomorrow. Times have changed. The EU should therefore stop requiring developing countries to adopt the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention through trade agreements or any other related activities.
This policy brief is an abstract of the report 'Plant variety protection & UPOV 1991 in the European Union's Trade Policy: Rationale, effects & state of play'
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Dossier
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Dossier
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Event / 7 December 2021, 14:00 - 15:15
WEBINAR: EU's push for strong Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on seeds
The European Union's (EU) foreign trade policy has many implications for the sustainability of food systems in developing countries, heavily impacting farmers, breeders, and citizens. The unhidden promotion by the EU of strong intellectual property rights on plants affects food systems from its very basis, i.e., the seeds that are available for farmers to grow. Amongst these intellectual property rights, the main instrument that is advocated by European authorities is the 1991 Act of the UPOV Convention, which provides exclusive rights to breeders over the propagating material of new plant varieties, while diminishing the rights of others to use the material for further breeding and hampering with the rights of farmers to freely save, use, exchange and sell their seeds.
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Blog / 16 February 2021
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Alternative
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